California Port Pileup

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the major shift in consumer spending is causing a rise in the number of ships at anchor in the fourth quarter of 2020. At the time of this writing, the number of ships at anchor is consistently around 30 but reached a high of 40 on February 1, 2021. 

With the number of ships at anchor, they’re not looking to leave anytime soon. The current ships at anchor have capacities ranging over 10,000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units) to as much as 16,000 TEU. Comparing both 2015 and 2020-2021 port congestion events in terms of TEU, there is a wide disparity between 2015 and today as the ships now have bigger TEUs compared to then.